Today, February 4th is National Cancer Prevention Day founded over 10 years ago. It was in response to nonworking cancer designations beyond a calendar memo.

My take was that we needed a working day to really understand what we could do to lower risk for cancer . As a result, and outcome came the National Cancer Prevention Workshop. Since that time, Less Cancer has educated tens of thousands of healthcare providers, legislators, community leaders, families and individuals shifting the paradigm on cancer.

While cancer prevention research has been going on for decades, cancer prevention was not a mainstream conversation when Less Cancer was founded 20 years ago.

We have been the first organization of our kind to focus on cancer prevention and also include environmental factors as well as policy that could lower the risk for cancer .

We were the first organization of our kind to take public health information to social media platforms, contributing a shift in the health literacy globally.

We were founded in a rural county in Virginia, with primarily spare change for financial resources and only one or two supporters to an idea that was unthinkable at the time.

The timing was not perfect as a couple years later by myself, while non-cancerous, had a 10 hour surgery to remove a spinal tumor that has continued to impact my life. Even then work for Less Cancer never interrupted my life — ever (except for family and they too may disagree.)

As founder, I went from a marketing executive to creating a nonprofit organization as a seven day a week, full-time job, picking up consulting and part-time jobs to make ends meet.

We had several opportunities to accept funding from corporations that did nothing to advance human health, and in truth, several of those companies did a lot to negatively impact human health.

We primarily have been an organization that has been all grassroots, or as I like to say, we were built on bake sale money.

At the time cancer organizations were turning patients into athletes, selling pink ribbons, and promoting fast food sponsorship swag in the name of cancer.

All of it sat wrong with me, my losses were too extreme to compromise the mission with sponsors and money that would change in shape our goals from more treated cancer to Less Cancer altogether.

It seemed crazy, that chemical companies were sponsoring a cancer day, much less research or educational institutions.

I would be remiss in not mentioning it wasn’t just chemical companies but alcohol companies, tobacco, fast food, the sugar industry to name a few none of which are doing anything at the time for human health that’s positive. I remember one soda company sponsoring an obesity program with another cancer organization.

And while we didn’t take money from them, I was always open to working with them, which I did in some case to help lower risk.

Sadly, while the increase of incidences of cancer on the rise, we as a country have been clearly focused on the battles and not the war.

I remember as a young child listening to Richard Nixon watch his war on cancer and I was so hopeful then for the many mothers in my neighborhood that had cancer.

Now in a couple days I will be 65 older than Richard Nixon was at the time.. we have seen more cancer, not less.

We have seen cancer deaths come down because of prevention, screenings, and treatments. I am thankful that our work, and our collaborations have contributed to that piece of positive news.

Some things are better, but the work is far from complete . In the 20 years of our work, we have made communities not just here in Virginia but across the country, healthier and safer, we have connected the dots for many so they might have access to screenings and cancer care.

We have waived the flag for those that have not been heard to ensure that nobody because of their race, gender, sexuality, or their social economic standing, or where people live will be ignored.

This is a big week for Less Cancer with an event on Capitol Hill on February 6th and live streaming of our workshop on February 7th.

While unplanned February 6 is also my birthday, I will be 65 years old. Normally, I wouldn’t make mention of it, but I feel so fortunate to have made further chronologically in years past so many people in my family and friends that I loved and cared for did not. I’ve been given so many opportunities in time to do more on this front and I am grateful. We as a human race have such a little time to contribute. I am fortunate I have been given such a great opportunity and the gift of time. Below is a picture of my fourth birthday, my brother Frank and sister Anne to my right both died too young from cancer.💔. #lesscancer. #nationalcancerpreventionworkshop #NationalCancerPreventionDay